Please help with feeding rec for Kitten with alelrgies

[ej x]

Hi everybody

So I have  cats, one has asthma and the other has allergies both are around 7 months old, very playful. The vet recommended to change their food to hypoallergenic kind, in order to discard food as the origin for asthma (as a consequence of being triggered by an allergy) and the other one's skin rash allergy. Since changing to novel protein did not seem to make much of a difference.

So I compared Royal Canin Hypo and Hill's Z/D and decided for z/d, since the hydrolyzed protein source is chicken liver, vs soy from Royal Canin.

Here is my problem, there are no feeding recommendations for kittens, both weight around 7 lbs, and the bag says to feed each 1/2 cup, but that seems too little no?

Most foods say, for kittens feed double, can i just do that? We will determine if it is the food in 6 to 8 weeks, so the change might not be permanent. I don't want to supplement because the supp might trigger the allergy and I will never know.

Food says 398 Kcal ME/cup, 3797 Kcal ME/kg

Crued protein 8%

Crude fat 12%

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[missmimz]

I've honestly never heard of a food allergy being related to asthma, or at least it's probably the less common relation. Most of the time food allergies cause skin reactions in pets and asthma is related to environmental allergies. In addition, RX hypoallergenic foods are really low quality, especially the kibbles. I would honestly seek a second opinion from another vet. I would also encourage you to feed higher quality wet food with little to no fillers over feeding kibble, especially to young growing kittens that really need high meat content. Depending on what food you were feeding, it is possible it's related to the food, but I'm not sure going with RX food is the best answer. 

http://feline-nutrition.org/health/another-furball-it-might-be-feline-asthma

 

[ej x]

I know, I have seeked other opinions, but they all want to have her with cortisone.

This guy, said he's almost sure that it won't be the food, but he wants to discard this before doing the allergy testing.And since my other cat does have skin rashes and keeps scratching, I thought it would be 2 birds with one stone.

I agree, I would much rather keep feeding them acana and wellness like I used to but, def want to hive Hypoallergenic food a try even for 6 weeks, just having a problem figureing out how much to feed.

Thanks for the advice though!

 

[lisahe]

I, too, have read that food can be a contributing factor for asthma in cats. One of our cats a few asthma-like coughing episodes shortly after we adopted her so that's (yet another!) reason we feed our cats a diet with as few fillers and extraneous ingredients as possible.

You've probably already considered the kitty litter as a possible trigger, @EJ x, but if not, I highly recommend Dr. Elsey's Respiratory Relief. It's expensive but Ireland hasn't had an asthma-like cough since we switched to that nearly three years ago. I don't know if the old kitty litter (Fresh Step, which is very dusty and perrfumed) was causing actual asthma symptoms or just making her cough -- the problem resolved itself so quickly that we never had her tested and the vet's just happy that Ireland's not coughing -- but it worked.

Good luck!

 

[ej x]

thanks LisaHE, yes I looked into litter. I changed from world's best to sophresh paper litter. Thinking Paper = no dust

http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/so-phresh-odor-control-paper-pellet-cat-litter

But it has baking soda and it does make some dust so I don't know if I made a right call, any experience with this one?

Unfortunately I have no access to the one you recommended, though it looks great, any other recommendations?

On the food feeding, any ideas?

Thanks

 

[lisahe]

 
thanks LisaHE, yes I looked into litter. I changed from world's best to sophresh paper litter. Thinking Paper = no dust

http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/so-phresh-odor-control-paper-pellet-cat-litter

But it has baking soda and it does make some dust so I don't know if I made a right call, any experience with this one?

Unfortunately I have no access to the one you recommended, though it looks great, any other recommendations?

On the food feeding, any ideas?

Thanks

I don't have many ideas but wish I had more. We were very lucky that our cat's coughing was resolved very fast. We just happened to have a package of the Dr. Elsey's cat litter in the house, switched to it, and the cat's coughing stopped.

But yes, you'd want as little dust as possible and no perfumes. I'm sure you've already seen other asthma recommendations, like low-stress environments, clean air, low allergens, and the like. Some of those are very hard to control.

As for food, I'd agree with @missmimz and start with high-quality wet food(s) that are high-protein and low-carb and have as few fillers as possible. (Under "fillers" I'd include ingredients like potatoes, peas, lentils, grains, rice, and chickpeas, as well as thickeners like tapioca or potato starch.) Personally, I'd prefer a canned food like Fancy Feast pates or Sheba--foods that are meat or at least by-product rather than fillers--over lots of more expensive foods that might have potato or peas. Cats just don't need those carbs.

You might get more responses by starting a similar thread in the health forum, asking for ideas on resolving your cats' issues. I know I've seen a number of threads about asthma so I'm sure you'd at least get some ideas.

Good luck.